How Caleb Williams’ Contract Compares to Former No. 1 Bryce Young originally appeared in NBC Sports Chicago
O Bears signed Caleb Williams to his four-year, $39 million rookie contract, a source confirmed to NBC Sports Chicago’s Josh Schrock.
Williams’ deal also includes a $25 million signing bonus and a fifth-year option. The cap hit in Williams’ Year 1 of his contract is $7.1 million — the 10th-highest cap hit for the Bears’ 2024 season.
How does Williams’ contract compare to Bryce Young and the first overall picks?
By comparison, Panthers quarterback Bryce Young – the No. 1 pick in the 2023 NFL Draft – has a four-year contract worth $37.9 million, just $1.1 million less than his contract. Williams.
Here are the contract values of the No. 1 picks in the last 10 NFL Drafts, according to Spotrac.
Rookie contracts are decided on the rookie salary scale; is a salary cap within a salary cap to measure prepaid contracts for NFL rookie players. The rookie’s contract largely depends on the NFL’s success and overall cap flexibility.
For example, one reason for Williams’ contract increase is the NFL salary cap increase. The NFL salary cap increased by a record 13.6% this season, from $224.8 million to $255.4 million, an increase of just over $30 million. This allowed contractual bonuses to increase; signing bonuses also increased by $3.79%, according to CBS Sports, the largest increase since 2019.
The other factor in rookie contracts depends on where the player is drafted. Since Williams — and the rest of the table — was the No. 1 pick in their respective drafts, he will have the highest-paying contract among rookies in the 2024 NFL Draft class.
But largely, as you can see from the table, the value of the contract depends on the success of the NFL. That’s just part of how Williams was able to earn $14.1 million more than Winston in 2015, and a bonus of nearly $10 million more.
